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TACOMA 



AND 



"DESTINY. " 



1891. 



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Men at some time are masters of their fates. 



C. 75 N D R E inZ S, 

. «^RV OF co^ 




DEC 30 13 




Tacoma, Washington. 
PuGET Sound Printing Company 

i8gi 



Entered according to Act of Congress, by C. Andrews in the ofilce of the 
LlbrHrinn of Congress at Wnshington, D. C September 18. 1891. 






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9 

'obfe of (2oRt©i^ts- 



Prefatory. 

I. Pi7ilosopl7y. 

1. Popular Piu-asc'h;. Aphorisms. 

2. " Men of Destiny." Cities and Dynasties, ditto. 

II. Ar;)alogy. 

1. Atlantic Cities. 

2. Inland Cities. 
8. Pacific Cities. 

4. Cities of the Old World. 

5. Failure of First Sites. 

III. Logic. 

1. Uniformity of Causes. 

2. Philadelphia and New York. 

3. Pvivalry of Atlantic Cities. 

4. ParalU^l on the Pacific. 

5. Raih-oads on the Atlantic Coast. 
(>. Railroads on the Pacific Coast. 



IV. History. 

1. Neighboring Cities not Antagonistic. Chicago and Milwaukee. 

St. Louis. Chicago and New York. 

2. Continental Lines of Cities. Baltimore to San Francisco. 

Charleston to Mazatlan. Boston to Victoria. 

3. Continental Divisions. The Atlantic Seaboard. Pacific Sea- 

board. Interior. 

4. " Three Cities." New York. Chicago. Tacoma. 

5. Focal Points of Distribution. 

6. Center of the Continent. 

V. Prophecy. 

1. " Star of Empire." Its Starting Point. Westward Course. 

Cj'cles. 

2. The World's " Exchange." London. New York. Chicago. 

Tacoma. 

3. Re-Conquest of Asia. 

4. '' Looking Backward. 



Vl. Cor;>clusior5. 

1. "City of Destiny" no Misnomer. 

2. Destiny, Chance, Design, Law. 

3. Chicago in 1852 and 1892. 

4. Chicago and Tacoma in 1942. 



Prefatory. 



Distance from the centers of wealth and population in the- 
Eastern States has tended to shroud the actual condition and 
prospects of initial points of improvement in this State, in a mass- 
of conflicting ideas. That the greatest misapprehension, not to- 
say downright ignorance, of the physical features of the Sound. 
and Coast country in general, prevails east ot the Rocky Moun- 
tains, is, on this account, not surprising. 

The enterprising and ably written up accounts of these various 
points, representing so-called rival interests, have also tended to 
create still further confusion, in regard to the physical indications 
of future developments in different localities. 

The natural and financial reasons for the fact that all great 
commercial lines of ocean and railway traffic must neccessarily 
concentrate at some one locality and one only, for the benefit of 
all, in each great section of any country, do not seem to be clearly 
apprehended by the majority, notwithstanding the obvious analo- 
gies, past and present, which clearly point them out. 

In other words, the question as to whether there is any gene- 
ral, uniform law of commerce which governs the location, relative 
growth and success, of towns and cities, still remains an unsolved 
enigma in the minds of the general public. 

To remedy this, in a measure, by presenting the facts and 
analogies of history and of present movements, under a slightly 
more philosophical method than has yet been attempted — to probe 
the apparently prevailing error of popular conceptions in regard to 
the laws which have prevailed in such cases, especially the crude 
notion that great sea-ports are ever built near the sea-coast, when 
more inland positions are accessible, is the main object of this 
brochure. It is intended as a thesis of " education," not opposition. 

C. A. 



1. pi^ilosopt^y. 



' Master of human destinies am I. 
I knock unbidden once, at every gate; 
Rise quickly, haste to follow me, before 
I turn away; it is the hour of fate." 



" Wt;)at's in a r^anr^e?" 




ORDS are used to formulate and express 
tliouglit. A single Avord sometimes in- 
volves vast combinations of ideas. Few, 
however, pause to consider liow much of 
real worth — or possible error — may lie concealed in a 
single, common word of human language, that grand 
and only vehicle of knowledge. 

Popular appellations are popular prophecies. 
Axioms arise from the attrition of reason and ex- 
perience. 

Hence there is a deep philosophy hidden in the 
meaning of most conventional phrases, maxims, saws, 
and fables. 

The undefinable attribute that dwells in 

The Wopd Destiny 

Has been employed to account for the phenomenal 
career of men of genius, successful generals, statesmen, 
or fortunate adventurers. 



8 TACOMA AND DESTINY. 

It has also been applied to the noted dynasties, 
states, and cities which have appeared on the horizon 
of history. Hence when applied to modern men and 
municipalities it cannot be relegated to the vocabulary 
of extant slang, or sensational colloquy. Its deep eth- 
ical significance and common use has gained for it a 
most respectable position, not only in polemics, but in 
the literature of all classes. For whenever its popular 
use has occurred in obedience to that instinctive pro- 
phetic prescience — prompted by inherent indications, 
visible only to the eye of genius, it has seldom been 
misapplied. 





II. f{r)3\o(^y. 



" Life's current oft runs sinuous; this way. 
Now thiat, and many eddies up-stream play; 
But all must yield to nature's final force, 
Returning to their destined, normal course." 



^EIS often err in their first estimate of the 
effects of natural conditions, but these 
errors time invariably corrects. Cities 
which have sprung up and prospered where 
least expected, while others failed or fell behind on 
sites previously selected and which seemed most eligi- 
ble, illustrate clearly this principle. 

The first commercial town-site in New England, 
Salem, Mass., planted in 1626, had an established Eu- 
ropean and Asiatic trade when the site of Boston, only 
fourteen miles distant, was sold for £30 sterling, (Cham. 
Enc.) But Salem succumbed while Boston boomed, all 
because destiny, i. e., commercial conditions, willed 
that the farthest inland point of Boston Bay should 
be the harbor of the hub of New England. 

Roger Williams put his trust in Providence, but 
the city founded by him now points to its position at 
the head of Narragansett Bay, as the providence that 
destined it to become a maritime port of a quarter 
million people, while Newport, at its outlet, with an 
equally fine harbor, is simply a summer resort.* 

♦Newport, R. I., was from 1653 to 1690 "the chief port of entry for the colonies." 
(Enc. Brit.) 



10 TACOMA AND DESTINY. 

Quebec, founded in 1(308, was by its strategic and 
political importance, long able to retain its position as 
a leading commercial city, yet Montreal, 180 miles 
farther inland, notwithstanding it was held as a mere 
outpost of Quebec until 1832, has since then, through 
the force of this commercial law, become the largest 
maritime city of Canada. 

Hendrik Hudson hunted for inland ports as far up 
as the site of Albany, but on account of insufficient 
depth of channel alone, destiny decided that the only 
place which could at last develop into the great city of 
the Atlantic seaboard, was at the deep-water junction 
of all the sounds, bays, inlets, and rivers which meet 
around Manhattan Island, at the head of Long Island 
Sound. 

But even there destiny was not able to annul the 
tendency of trade to seek more inland positions, until 
man originated a new class of causes, in constructing 
artificial channels of commerce which virtually altered 
New York's relation to the interior. Until then other 
cities took the lead. 

But of this more anon. — Sec. III. 

William Penn, the prototype of that more modern 
city founder. Jay Cooke, instructed hi's advance agents 
also to "proceed to the highest point of deep-water 
where good landing conld be had,'' to found his 
friendly city. Lord Baltimore's servants did the same 
thing. Philadelphia and Baltimore, the first 95 and the 
latter 200 miles ship's course from the sea, both became 
mighty maritime competitors of New York, the first 
maintaining its precedence as the largest city in the 
United States until 1830, while Yorktown and James- 



TACOMA AND DESTINY. 1] 

town, Va., the latter being the first English settlement 
on American soil, made in 1607, both i)lanted near the 
sea and long the pets of royal patronage, never grew 
into importance and are now almost unknown. 

This rule of choosing the farthest inland location 
possible, nearest to tributary territory, which is practi- 
cally uniform with all 

Seaboard Cities, 

Holds good also on all our lakes and rivers. 

General Dearborn, wdien he stuck the stakes of his 
stockade fort in 1803, decided the destiny of the duck- 
ponds around the mouth of Chacaqua (skunk-cabbage) 
creek, and presto, change, more than a million very 
live ducks now plume themselves on the site of the 
World's Great Fair ; wdiile Milwaukee, Chicago's quon- 
dam rival, is content to sit with jolly resignation 'round 
the "bier" of its early ambitions, satisfied to rank 
with other quarter-million, growing cities. Yet Mil- 
waukee was prior in settlement and population, besides 
possessing the cream of sites and of "bricks" — both 
in men and building material. But it gradually 
receded from the position of the chief city on Lake 
Michigan, because 85 miles from its common head of 
navigation, for all commercial lines. 

Thomas H. Benton, standing at a discreet distance 
on Randolph Rock, three miles below the confluence 
of the Missouri and Kansas rivers, pointed to a coming 
city of destiny, while the red-skin devils were yet 
dancing the scalp- dance on its very site. Kansas City, 
situated where the "big bend" of the Missouri made 
it the virtual head of navigation for a vast region south 



12 TACOMA AND DESTINY. 

and west of it, has nobly honored the shrewd states- 
man's prophecy, though Independence, Mo., eight miles 
below, had for a long time held a heavy river and in- 
land trade, and Leavenworth, twenty-four miles above, 
aided by local events, also gained a large advance of 
her in early trade and population -thus showing that 
destiny permits no defeat, for trade like 

" Truth cru>iheil to earth will rise again." 

St. Paul was saved by grace only, in joining its 
destinies with Minneapolis, its slightly more inland 
neighbor.*^ 

"Superior" cities have been built, on paper, all 
over America, but bad weather and bad wit combined 
could "Knott" down destiny at Duluth — it is ahead, 
because at the head of Lake Superior. "'^^ 

French voyageurs and Catholic padres have pad- 
dled, parle vous'd Francais, and planted schools and 
trading posts, from St. John's, New Foundland, to San 
Diego, California, but each saintly-named site failed to 
evolve a city where destiny did not dictate, for was not 
quaint old Kaskaskia killed by the "slow-moving fin- 
ger ' ' of fate, at St. Louis, only a few miles above ? 



*1 The extreme tendency and ultimate results of this principle of marine traffic 
seeking the farthest inland point possible, is receiving fresh illustration from the enter- 
prise of Mi neapolis, whose capitalists are now expending large sums of money in 
deepening the channel of the Mississippi and carrying its navigation some ten or twenty 
miles past its ancient head, at St. Paul, where it has been established for half a century — 
thereby attesting that though destiny bides her time, sooner or later it laughs at all ob- 
stacles, whether of rocks in the river bed, or " rocks " in the bank vaults of capitalists 
who would impede its progress. 

*2 The building of terminal warehouses, etc., by the Great Northern Railway at 
Superior City might appear to be an exception to this rule, but probably it is only a par- 
tial one, as the passenger terminals of that road will be at Duluth. The supposed per- 
manent terminals at Council Bluflfs, Iowm, are now removed to Omaha, Nebraska. The 
latter city may also be cited fairly, as created by tlie operation of this same law, for Coun- 
cil Bluffs, owing to the non-occupancy of the opposite bank at the lime, was built on the 
w;'ong side of the river to be nearest to the territory of its greatest tributar\ trade. 
Hence destiny gravitated across the river, as soon as circumstances permitted. 



TACOMA AND DESTINY. 13 

Should we quote illustrations of this universal law 
nearer home, we have only to advert to the history of 
early settlements on our own coast. Sacramento, 70 
miles from the ocean, was the early ' ' destined " chief 
city of California, but gold- digging got the better of 
commerce in that case, by so obstructing the Sacra- 
mento's channel with debris, as to effectually destroy 
its navigation for large vessels. To this fact alone is 
attributable the necessity for building a commercial 
emporium on the ocean side of San Francisco Bay. 

Even the shrewd German genius of plodding, old 
Jolm Jacol) Astor, was misled by the perverse mistake 
which pioneers have made in every age, viz: that great 
and permanent commercial cities could be built up at 
the mouths of rivers or near the sea, at any point where 
it was possible, even at great expense, to reach a more 
inland site. The thriving city of Pox'tland, Oregon, 
stands as a forcible refutation of that 

Old Fashioned Fatuity, 
Effectually blurring the brilliance of Mr. Astor's elegy 
on that moss-grown monument, Astoria, 

" The City by the Sea," 

which will doubtless follow the fate of its prototype, 
Jamestown, Va. , once first now last. 

This law may also be seen working itself out — 
slowly to be sure, like everything else in that sedate 
quarter — by the transfer of traffic from Victoria to 
Vancouver, and again from Vancouver to the more 
inland harbor of New Westminster, B. C, since the 
completion of the Canadian Pacific R. B. 

The modern railroad system may, perhaps, furnish 
a new factor in favor of the local traffic of some sea- 



14 TACOMA AND DKSTINY, 

ports near the sea, bat no cliange in transportation 
methods can more than slightly modify the great eco- 
nomic law, that heavy ocean traffic will always seek the 

most Inland LUhapfage 

Possible, on either natural or artificial channels, to 
discharge its cargoes and reload' for foreign ports. 
So long as water is cheaper than land carriage, this 
rule must hold.* 

Commerce calculates closely and intuitively — for 
her freightage figures are practically infinite. In the 
great aggregate of years and centuries, billions of tons 
duplicated pass over any given route, and every trans- 
fer, handling, lighterage or delay, every mile of dis- 
tance, every fraction of cost, even to the friction of 
car- wheels, counts up in cumulative ratio. Hence, to 
superficial observers, the apparently unreasoning reck- 
lessness of expense in destiny's (choice of position for 
her emporiums. If need be she constructs her marts 
over marshes, as at Chicago, or amid lagoons, with 
canals for streets, as at Venice; builds whole sea-ports 
on piles, as in Holland, fights turbulent currents and 
treacherous bars, as at Portland, or begins in a gigantic 
forest, as at Tacoma. 

Were any other illustrations needed, of this grand 
financial law oi loration for commercial cities, they 
could be given l\y a brief study of the jxisitions of 
maritime cities in the old world. 

*Capt. , a gentleman of wide financial ability and ample means, on being 

asked for the reasons which led him to invest in a certain sea-port town, replied 

promptly, that it being miles nearer the ocean, " railroad and shipping lines would 

surely concentrate there." Yet on being asked which showed the highest relative cost, 
transportation by water or by rail, answered as readily " rail." Tuis closed the categor- 
ical lesfjpn. 



TACOMA AND DESTINY. 15 

Where have the main marts of the Mediten-anean 
always been found, if not near its head and on its in- 
land arms, bays, and straits, as seen at CoiL<<tantinople, 
Venice and Naples i 

Alexandria, near the month of the Xile. though 
for centuries one of the most powerful seats of trade 
and of learning, is in later times outstripped by the law 
we are considering, and Cairo, the most inland deep- 
channel port of Egypt, now exceeds her ancient rival 
by more than KXJ.OiJO inhalntants. and according to late 
letters from an observant citizen of Tacoma now in the 
East, events are shaping for a genuine business boom 
in that city, and also at Constantinople. 

Pett-r tlie Great opined the proper place to plant 
the maritime capital of Russia, as far as possible up 
the channel of the Xeva. at the head of the Gulf of 
Finland, which, barring its boreal climate, beai-s strong 
resemblance in physical features to our own more salu- 
brious inland sea. 

London, a great commercial seaport, as well as the 
moneyed metroi)olis of Europe, was originally built 50 
miles up the channel of the Thames, (Enc. Brit.), as 
far up as ves.«els could then go. and the river is now 
utilized with docks from a point -lO miles to 60 miles 
inland, where the city still sprearLs and grows with 
century-surviving vitality. 

Liverixjol, Glasgow. Amsterdam, Hamburg, potent 
controllers of ocean commerce in Europe, are all situ- 
ated on inland seas or land-locked fiords. 

Yeddo. Shanghai, Calcutta. Vladivostok, in Asia» 
all carrv out our conclusions. 



16 TACOMA AND DESTINY. 

We have thus seen that in both worlds, all 
Great Maritime ]VIaPts 

Have taken final position as near the fnrthest inland 
point of deep-water navigation as was possible. 

The exceptions to this rule have in every case been 
temporary only, the mere tentative attempts of inex- 
perience, misguided ambition, or the results of extra- 
neous causes existing at the time. Yet these first 
founded cities have not been failures per se, except as 
to their claims for supremacy, which did not and could 
not permanently belong to them, but most of them, 
e. g. , Alexandria, Quebec, Newport, Milwakee, etc. , are 
to-day living examples of this law, many of them ren- 
dered largely prosperous, instead of being killed, by 
the proximity of the true "Cities of Destiny," whose 
sites have been determined, not by man's first feeble 
means or mistaken judgment, but by the infallible laws 
of nature, which in the end are sure to win. 

The principle here laid down can be verified by 
every close observer of tlie course of trade in the towns 
and cities under his own observation. Not only cities 
in relation to each other, but the local parts of each 
one, are subject to this occult law of change, and the 
concentration of each variety of business at particular 
points. The spot first chosen hardly ever becomes 
the permanent center of business in any town. No 
amount of capital, energy, push, or perseverance can 
avail against the laws which business lays down for 
itself. "Conditions" are the criterion in every case, 
and natural conditions and resultant tendencies are 
too potent for man to cope with, beyond certain limits. 



TACOMA AND DESTINY. 17 

The cases we have cited are sufficient to settle the 
principle. Sites of representative cities cannot be 
made to order^ Nature has given them their first and 
main endowment and each must be content to fall into 
that class to which existing- conditions adapt them. If 
there are on the Pacific coast any temporarily ambi- 
tious — not to say presumptuous cities, examples of the 
class we have described, whose sites are fixed where 
this great law must constitute them— not principals, 
but opulent auxiliaries, even if the proud city of the 
"Golden Gate" is among them, who is to blame for the 
inferences that rise like ghosts unbidden at a banquet? 

"Thou cans'tnot say I did it." 

It is simply our business to record facts and analogies 
and to note the results that have followed and that 
under like conditions will always follow. 
These facts bring out plainly the 

HanduiPiting on the Wall, 

Which shows the same kind of history repeating itself 
on the Pacific coast. 

Ever since the cession of California, each new city 
on the seaboard, from San Francisco to Victoria, as it 
felt the friendly pulses of the great ocean tides 
caress its wharves, has laid the fiattering unction to its 
soul that destiny had dropped, or was about to drop, 
her royal diadem upon its willing brow. Each pointed 
to its position, priority, prestige, resources or powerful 
friends, as deciding the question into whose lap the 
richest trade of the richest half of the globe must 
finally fall. And there was really much on which to 
base these anticipations. Each one was supplied with 
keys to unlock regal riches, and each one —failing to 



18 TACOMA AND DESTINY. 

apply the infallible test of historical precedent — might 
imagine itself justified in appropriating the omens 
which pointed to the "golden round '^ of legitimate 
commercial sovereignty. 

But hope, the "juggling fiend," however specious 
her promises, never yet was able to defeat a natural law. 

The tiara of supremacy must be awarded to the 
city and section which, following the lead of destiny, 
not rashly undertaking to create it, nor to defy it, is 
situated at the true, traditional "seat of customs," the 
point where the ever converging and radiating road- 
ways of inter-continental and inter-oceanic trade and 
travel first meet the deep-sea soundings of the actual 
head of navigation — the spot where ' ' water ends and 
land begins." 

That city is the City of Tacoma ; that section is 
Puget Sound. 

It, and it alone, above all other cities and sections 
on the Pacific coast. 

Commands the Situation, 

And sits supremely safe from defeat, being in perpetual 
league with destiny, by virtue of an immutable law 
which no combination, financial or political, can possi- 
bly subvert. Nothing short of some natural convul- 
sion, such as overwhelmed Pompeii or sunk the storied 
cities of Atlantis, can ever blot out Ta coma's place in 
history, guaranteed as it is by the past, and already 
real in the present. It alone can point to every natural 
and liistorical analogy in ratification of its right to 
christen itself the destined focal point of Pacific coast 
comiuerc(\ 




III. Co(^ie. 



" The fault, dear Brutus, is not In our stars, 
But lu ourselves." 



IKE causes produce like effects. Neither 
mathematics, analogy, nor logic mislead if 
properly applied. A simple, syllogistic 
method, easily demonstrates the points we 
have taken in II. 

The same causes which made New York the " meas- 
uring city" and Philadelphia, Baltimore, Boston, etc., 
its prosperous adjuncts on the Atlantic coast, are ac- 
tively at work here and Avill inevitably produce similar 
results. 

Destiny cannot create more than one "Metropolis," 
for each separate section, though its environs will 
always share in its success. 

Some one point on the Pacific coast must be that 
destined spot. 

Toward which one of the numerous ''Metropoli," 
now so plentifully platted along the whole western 
coast, do(^s the unerring finger of destiny, i. e., the 
force of facts, figures, logic, and analogy, now unitedly 
point? 

Let us see. 



20 TACOMA AND DESTINY. 

"At the commencement of the American revolution (1776), New York 
City had Vjut 22,000 inhabitants, and was far below Boston and Philadelphia 
in commercial importance." (Enc. Brit.) 

"The city of Philadelphia, up to 1830, continued to be the first city in 
the United States in population." (Ibid.) 

Not until 1825, when "the completion of the Erie 
canal gave impetus to the tendency of foreign com- 
merce to concentrate at New York, ' ' did the gain in 
population in that city begin to exceed that of its 
rivals. And ' ' the completion of the railroad lines into 
the interior continued to enhance that tendency," both 
as to population and commerce. 

Note the almost 

Exact Parallel 

Of this "tendency" repeating itself on the Pacific 
coast. 

Philadelphia is 85 miles from New York, the same 
as Milwaukee from Chicago, and a little less than is 
Portland, Oregon, from Tacoma, while Charleston, S. 
C. , a fine aristocratic city, peopled with refined, heroic 
men, on a fine harbor and in a fine climate too, held 
about the same relation to New York that San Fran- 
cisco does to Tacoma. On the north were New Haven, 
Providence and Boston, analogues of Port Townsend, 
Victoria and Vancouver. 

All these cities, from Boston to Charleston, devel- 
oped faster than New York until the opening of an 
outlet to the lakes westward, in 1825, when that condi- 
tion was changed, once and forever. 

In like manner all the Pacific cities, from Victoria 
to San Francisco, outstripped Tacoma till the opening 
of a direct communication eastward with the same 
great chain of lakes, in 1888. 



TACOMA AND DESTIJSTY. 21 

From that moment the tendency of foreign and 
continental commerce to concentrate on Pnget Sound 
commenced, never to cease. "''"^ 

j|@°'Nota bene. 

Ample railway routes have since been opened con- 
necting every leading Atlantic city with the interior, 
even reaching across the entire country from each. 
Yet the tendency of commerce to • concentrate at New 
York is not weakened, but, on the contrary, strength- 
ened thereby. For each great railway corporation as 
it reaches these auxiliary coast cities, finds itself virtu- 
ally obliged to continue its connections through them, 
till they all reach their real termini*^ at the point where 
foreign commerce concentrates. Strong confidence was 
long felt that these railways, especially the great Penn- 
Central and the Baltimore & Ohio railroads would 
restore to those enterprising cities Philadelphia and 
Baltimore their lost commercial prestige, but ' ' foreign 
commerce, the chief source of their early prosperity," 
once "taken away," can never be wholly restored. 
Henceforth these cities must look for other allied 
sources of prosperity, which they will always find in 
abundance. 



*1 In corroboration of this point we clip the lollowing, reported from the official cus- 
toms returns, at Port Towusenu, showing tliat more shipping was entered and clearefl on 
Puget Sound than at New Yorli, during three months preceding August, 1891, viz : "^40 
vessels cleared, 117 more than New York; 320 entered, 72 more than New York. The ton- 
nage of vessels clearing has been one-third, and of those entering, more than one-third 
larger." Of this shipping the port of Tacomn does the largest share, but it doubtless will 
always, as now, be largely, at convenience, distributed among all the liorts of the favored 
"Sound country." 

*2 New Yoek, Nov. i:^, 1891.— President Oakes, of the Northern Pacihc, was shown a 

dispatch, saying the road had floated a new loan, etc. He said, " We don't give out 

facts from . New York is the offlce of the company." Although the Eastern com- 
mercial connections of the Northern Pacific are said to terminate at Baltimore its real 
" headquarters " are at New York, and this is practically true of every through line on the 
continent. 



22 TACOMA AND DKSTINY. 

And ai^ for the sooiv or more of cities on our own 
Sound and sea-cwist, if they k)ok well to their legiti- 
mate laurels, some of them may become busy Balti- 
mores or i)hilantlirophi(' Philadeli^hias, whih' not one 
of them need laek for objects of high ambition, so long- 
as typical LowelFs, Pittshurghs, Pullmans and ITar- 
vards, Vassars, Cornells, etc., can find sites for plants, 
or pupils for tuition, in this better than eastxTU, boreal 
paralk^l lattitiides, this balmier than classit^ Grecian 
climate.* 

NoAV note this pertinent inquiry : 

If foreign commerce, un the Atlantic i^oast, tended 
to concertrate at a. single locality, where natural con- 
ditions Avere most favorable, and did so in spite of all 
the priority, prestige, push and competing railroad 
routes of rival sea- ports, will it not do so on the Pacific 
coast? 

The fact that New York city was situated at the 
nearest natural point to feasibly connect foreign com- 
merce with the great 

Chain of Inland Liakes, 

Was the determining datum whic'li constituted it the 
"City of Destiny" for the Atlantic seaboard. Other- 
wise Philadelphia or Baltimore, more inland sea- ports, 
would have continued to lead. But they w^ere more 
thoroughly barred by natural obstacles. Yet Penn- 
sylvania "push" actually construc-ted a rival canal 
across tlu^ Alleghanies, the entire length of the State, 
Avhich has since however fallen into "desuetude." 



* Amonp all the dweHlnsrs of Tncoma and Seattle, and probably the entire Sound 
tboreisnot a " storm door" nordonble-fjlazed window. Stalls and stores arc not enclosed 
during business hour.s throughout the year. 



TACOMA ASJ> I>K^'JI\V. 28 

Note again thin Htrictly analogoUH fact. 

How many at pre.sent are building their hopen and 
booms upon tne con.stnu-tion of additional linen of road 
acroHH the continent, to .strike new "tennini" on this 
coa.st and on the Sound ? It requires more than ten 
digits to designate the number of mf>Ht promising sites 
for the "chief city on the Sound," t<^> say notliing of 
sites for great seaports on the rivers, bays, harbors and 
coasts south and west of us, all based upon n^'il or sup- 
posed teiTfiini of certain railroads. But if the comple- 
tion of such great road- ways and water- routes as those 
which now reacli tlie Atlantic cities, both nor-th and 
soutlj of New York, could not anrl does not prevent 
foreign commerce from concentrating substantially at 
one main [;oint, will the completion of any number of 
new routes to Pacific cities produce any different re- 
sults \ 

Please note anotlier f act, which throws light on the 
logic of the case, if not at first sight clearly analogous. 

The N. P. K. R.. terminating at Tacoma, wa« not 
the first railway reaching this coast. Another sea- 
board city farther south (enjoyed tliat adxantage. For 
many years, while the Union Pacific trans-continental 
line was doing business in the YA Dorado of California, 
the waters of Puget Sound were practically un ploughed 
by the keels of commerce and her shores were pathless 
primeval forests. But the moment a connection wa« 
foiTfied betwf^en Commencement Bay and the great 
lakes, with what alacrity did not only the Union Pacific, 
the Canadian Pacific, and the newer Great Northern, 
but als<^>, as is currently believed, the Southern Pacific 
seek to secure terminal facilities at the same point ? 



24 TACOMA AND DESTINY. 

Why are the Union and the Southern Pacific so eager 
to side-track old established sea- port cities, in the race 
to reach Tacoma's tide flats and the "open sea" via 
Paget Sound ? Why have the Northern Pacific and the 
other two Northern roads made no similar move towards 
the Golden Gate ? As in ancient times, "all roads led 
to Rome, " so in modern, all railroads converge towards 
their natural foci, and this struggle of the giants to 
gain Rome (room) on Puget Sound, indicates where the 
goal of commerce lies. 

Facts and logic all combine to demonstrate that 
here, as on the Atlantic, all trans-continental roads 
tend to seek a common terminus, and though for obvi- 
ous reasons it is usual for competing companies to con- 
ceal their plans, it is too late to ignore the facts already 
known and pointed to by strong inferential data, which 
show that each one of the five great corporations alluded 
to, have already secured or have inaugurated arrange- 
ments for securing terminal facilities on Commence- 
ment Bay, which is actually the nearest most feasible 
common point for striking across country. 

ppom Oeean to Ltakes.'' 
Similar data point to the not distant advent of five 
or six other powerful western systems diverging from 

* Speculations as to the probable "terminus" of tlie Great Northern railway at 
a point near the mouth of the Snohomish river, a promising point for a manufacturing 
town, claim to show that that point is on a ''shorter route from Puget Sound to Lake 
Superior." The same has been alleged of Vancouver, B. C, Auacortes, Seattle, Fair- 
haven, Whatcom and what-not other towns on the lower Sound, all of which have good 
harbors, rail connections, and fine sites for manufacturing, and are good points for 
homes and for investments. But all such speculations involve a fallacy when they sup- 
pose that commerce will ever violate the invariable law of placing her great emporiums 
at the most inland head of deep-water navigation. In this case the Hill cannot command 
the main terminus to come to him, but must go to it at Taeoma, which will be found to 
becxacily what the aliove words imply, " the nearcBt. most feasible, common point," 
for all lines, from ocean to lalies. And none but a •'common point" will do for any 
one line. 



TACOMA AND DESTINY. 25 

Chicago and other points, all pointing their far-reach- 
ing arms in the direction of Puget Sound. And it is 
safe to aver that no large railroad corporation on the 
continent Avill ever be tnlly equipped for business with- 
out some direct or collateral connection with the great 
Pacific center of commerce on Puget Sound. At Tacoma, 
regarded— not as a separate, dominating rival of other 
cities, but simply as a great central emporium among 
them, there is room enough around Commencement 
Bay, with its immense tide- flats and level Puyallup 
valley approach, to say nothing of its adjacent islands 
and mainland shores, to accomodate a vaster railway 
and ocean commerce than now centers at New York, 
and if this were not enough, its marine environs and 
urban adjuncts are more numerous grand and conve- 
nient, and far safer from climatic storms and winter 
closure,* than those of New York would be were the 
Delaware, Chesapeake and Potomac merged into one 
continuous, land-locked, unobstructed, deep- water- way, 
direct from New York to Washington, D. C, via Phil- 
adelphia and Baltimore. 

Think of it ! 

Here no barren sands like those of New Jersey in- 
tervene, no treacherous reefs lie. concealed, nor frown- 
ing headlands jut out upon a boisterous sea, between 
Tacoma, the terminal entrepot of Pacific commerce, and 
the grand retinue of auxiliary, allied seaports. 

"And cities prourl, with towers and buildings grand, 
Which line the shores of this Arcadian strand; " 

Already built and of which fate and metaphysical lore, 
as well as Tacoma's poets, also prophesy. 

»Xo ice ever forms in the waters of any part of Puget Sound. 



26 TAOOMA AND DESTINY. 

Again we repeat the pertinent inqniry : 
If an outlet from tlie Great Lakes and rivers of the 
interior decided the commercial status of the Atlantic 
cities, will it not perform the same function for the 
Pacific cities similarly situated? 

The fact that all the railroads now operating and 
building upon or towards the Pacific coast, are converg- 
ing to a terminus on Puget Sound, is of itself sufficient 
to settle the question as to wdiat locality possesses the 
natural facilities for creating the great focal maritime 
entrepot of the west coast. "Capital is at once conser- 
vative, cautious, and keen in its intuitions" and the 
same data which caused the Union-Central Pacific rail- 
road to build directly to San Francisco Bay, the best 
harbor in the only section then attracting unusual at- 
tention on the coast, at a later date decided the North- 
ern Pacific railroad to select from among many other 
points the head of deep-w^ater on Puget Sound. If the 
natural adaption of Commencement Bay had cut no 
figure with that corporation, how easy it would have 
been at that time, to have secured ample grounds with 
large bonus elsewhere, both for terminal or speculative 
purposes.* But that their decision was based upon con- 
siderations of a much wider and more far-seeing policy, 
there is no doubt. Commencement Bay would have 
been finally made the extreme terminus of all the 
marine routes and railroads which are now clustering 
there, had not the Northern Pacific chosen it at that 
time as a terminus. And if to-day, instead of a city of 
nearly 50,000 inhabitants, the entire natural site of 

*A large bonus is said to have been offered by a town nearer the sea. 



TACOMA AND DESTINY. 27 

Tacoma was, as one-half of it still is, an Indian reser- 
vation, it would yet become the great radiating center 
of Pacific commerce in time. Simply because destiny, 
— natural causes, cannot be defeated by temporary 
obstacles. 

The inane idea that "a railroad can make a city" 
wherever it pleases, may be used to catch unsophisti- 
cated settlers or callow capitalists, but railroad com- 
panies are not thus deceived. Nature makes the rivers, 
the harbors, and the sites for cities, and it is the instinct, 
tlie business of railroad men and mariners to find them. 
And no matter how much lap- wing policy they may use 
in concealing their intentions they finally get there. 
Jay Cooke and his envoys "knew" where the natural 
terminus of the Northern Pacific Avas indicated. And 
all the rest "know enough to know" that they must 
follow suit, and wdien it suits will show their hands.* 

Nor are railroad companies responsible for holding- 
out false ideas. Professional town-builders may afford 
to spend some money in pictures, puffs, cheap books 
and buildings, in order to boom a town which they in- 
tend to abandon, but for "a railroad to make a town by 



*The way to build up great cities aud great railroads is found to be by iuvitlngaud 
shariiiK business from every quartiT instead of repellinc it Hence the mistakes made 
in the early days of railroading— still remembered by all mature business men, of at- 
tempting an exclusive policy towards rival Hues has never been repeated by the Northern 
Pacific. On the contrary no great landed or commercial company has ever dealt so liber- 
ally with purchasers or pursued so enlightened a policy In affording facilities for other 
lines of trallic. In spi;e of the primitive spirit of opposition by the first great railways 
reaching tliose point-, the cities of Now York, Bufl'alo, Detroit, Cliicago, Omaha, el al, 
have become vast, networks of converging railways, connected by belt lines encircling 
each city. To prevent destiny from weaving a like mesh in and around Tacoma would 
be as impossible as it would be undesirable for tlie pioneer plant, to wliich the city owes 
its inception and rapid growth. Neither can grow to i's destined dimensions without 
the concentration and co-operation of every great line of marine and railway traffic which 
seeks its natural terminus at the head of Puget .Sound. Either all must seek this point 
or else the Nortliern Pacific must remove its terminus to some other center which is as 
easily supp sed as that water will run up stream. 



28 TACOMA AND DESTINY. 

its own efforts, " merely to speculate in lots, would uKi- 
rnate in certain loss, if the town were not backed by 
resources yielding a continuous income from traffic. 

Actual railroad building — not paper schemes nor 
watered stocks — is a true barometer by which people 
may judge the comparative merits of town-sites. When- 
ever it appears from the bona-&de outlay of money and 
permanent improvements by railroad companies that 
certain town- sites are not merely to be, but actually 
are, the termini of important railroad enterprises, that 
fact is rightly relied upon as proof that far-seeing cap- 
italists have studied the philosophy of finance as con- 
nected with the natural resources and laws of develop- 
ment at these points and have invested their means 
accordingly. And such action may usually l^e taken 
as indications of a correct judgment. Moneyed mag- 
nates are not making costly roads merely for amuse- 
ment, they mean business. Thus, when any city like 
New York, Chicago, or Tacoma, is found to be the 
focus of five or more connecting railroad routes, the 
facts warrant the conclusion that those corporations 
seek that point as a common terminus, not because 
they desire a town to be built there — another point 
might suit some of them better, if it depended upon 
their clioice — but because they foresee that the condi- 
tions all conjoin to necessitate the "concentration of 
commerce" at that spot, and as wise financiers they 
hasten to procure a position for their purpose. Hence 
any account, which purports to be a fair statement of 
the rightful claims and prospects of a city like Tacoma, 
cannot leave out or ignore any number of the railroad 
companies doing business in or l)uilding to that city, 



TACOMA AND DESTINY. 29 

without omitting an important item among tlie facts 
wliich attest the fulfinment of its promise as a city, not 
of ordinary tributary resources only, but as the true 
city of destiny, wortiiy to rank in importance with 
other representative cities which have passed through 
similar periods of incipient growth, but whose claims 
are now recognized as beyond cavil.* 

* While within the present year the Northern Pacific Railroad company has com- 
pleten a model machine-shop plant costing $2,000,000 and capable of employing ;i,000 men, 
which IS only one item of its outlay in this section, involving branches in every direc- 
tion, yet owing to persistent and most misguided statements of "expectations'" on the 
par' of supposed rival points there is at the East a wide-spread prevalence of actual 
doubt as to the real permanence of the Northern Pacific's final terminus at Taeoma. 
Though to all unbiased people on this coast such a doubt sounds wholly "daft, " yet we 
find in the Philadtlphia Railway Record an ably written letter detailing minutely the 
reasons why the terminus of that road will '• never be remov d from Taeoma. " Such a 
popular mi-apprehension in the sections whence Washington receives her accessions of 
citizens and (capital, will result in more mischief to the points where it originates than 
to Taeoma itself, for it is made from boom material solely, and only tends to confuse 
the public and keep back the influx of men and money to the entire region whose final 
prosperity depends upon the whcdesome development of each point on its actual merits. 
These efforts to "push" other points have never been met i_ kind and are not likely to be, 
on the part of heavy holders and sound corporations, whose entire coniidence in Taro- 
ma's assured destiny allows them to wait without effort or anxiety for the inevitable and 
natural rise of real estate. Such su))reme confidence, amounting- to apparent apathy, 
exists nowhere else on the Pacific coast, and while it undoubtedly operates to strengthen 
the misaiiprehension abroad as to Tacoma's real status, which has never been strongly 
or adequately stated, yet no fact could form a stronger inference in favor of Tacoma's 
future. The memory of every mature business man will recall analogies of this kind 
occurring in other cities of destiny. 





\\f. J^isto^y. 



•'All legoudary lore, Jjut lends a clew 
To what transpires fitresh, in regions new." 



HESE ars'iiments and analogies belong- to 
"tlie philosophy of history/' a science that 
is far too little studied. Yet its principle 
is neither so deep nor so obscure as not to 
be easily comprehended by every unbiased thinker or 
"student of geography,'' who ^Yill take the trouble to 
examine a map of the world, comparing the situations 
of other maritime cities and noting the relative re- 
sources and commercial possibilities of this grand, but, 
as yet, undeveloped region. 

While the advantages accruing from a location 
at the natural terminus of trade lines, will always 
assure supremacy to the cities possessing them, this 
does not by any means render them rivals or antagonists 
of any other cities, near or remote. Tlie growth of 
secondary centers of population, manufactures, etc. , is 
a necessary factor in the development of each respect- 
ive region of country, without which no great cities 
could ever be created. 

Tacoma's position is tlie gift of nature, it is its own 
sole birtliright, its inalienable 

LUappanty Deed fpom Destiny, 
Possessed by no other. Hence, it is in no sense the 
rival of any otlier point, and for the same reason it 



TACOMA AND DESTINY. 31 

neither lias or can have any real rivals. For it is one 
of the decrees of destiny, that all tlie contemporaneous 
activity of neighboring districts — construed as rivalry, 
and resulting temporarily as such in the period of early 
growth, must eventually aid in the development of the 
great centers, and 1)e mutually benefitted in return, by 
contributing to the volume of each other's prosperity 
in their respective spheres. Large cities do not suffer, 
but thrive by the prosperity of smaller ones, and vice 
versa. Prosperous cities, like thriving contiguous 
states, mutually benefit each other. 

New York feels no jealousy of her numerous opu- 
lent neighbors, she has more to lose by their decline 
than otherwise. Milwaukee, with one-fifth the popu- 
lation of Chicago, has forgotten that it was ever ac- 
counted a rival, it is now a valued customer, itself 
largely benefitted ])y the proximity of a great emporium 
of trade, in whicli to buy and sell. An elevated rail 
road is even now proposed between the two cities, thus 
putting them not more than one and one-half or at 
most two hours apart, though the distance is 85 
miles. ■■■^ AVhy should cities on the Sound, not half 
that space asunder, cherish a spirit of enstrangement 
long since out of date i Modern appliances annihil- 
ating distance will eventually practically consolidate, 
commerciall}', all cities within 100 miles of each other. ^^ 

*(l.i Since penning the above Mr. Henry Villard has announced bis intention of 
building, at once, a rjiilvvay from Chicago to Milwaukee, to be operated by new electrical 
contrivances l»tely invented by Mr. Edison, which proposes to reduce the time to one 
hour or less, making perhaps ICO miles an hour. He also intiujates that he might, some 
day, build such a road between Tacoma and Seattle, Twenty minutes each way! Seattle 
isTacoma's Brooklyn. 

*(2 ) The practice of residing in one city and doing bu.'-iness iu another is common 
in eastern states and Avill become so here. Already the merchants of Portland, Or., 
annually punha-e large quantities of gram in eastern Washington and Oregon, sending 
It direct to Tacoma elevators to be exported, thereby avoiding the expense of lighterage 



S2 TACOMA AND DESTINY. 

In the great interior there its not now a remnant of 
rivalry, nor a thrill of regret remaining that Chicago's 

Diploma fpom Destiny 

Is already signed, sealed and delivered. If jealonsy of 
Chicago exists anywhere, it has been transferred from 
Milwaukee and St. Louis to New York itself. 

What a stupendous step for any city in a single 
life- time. Reviled in 1840 as a " due '^-pond, ' ' passed by 
for Milwaukee, sneered at by St. Louis, jeered when 
the Joliet "cut off" was projected, and yet, in half a 
century securing the rank of second city in the United 
States, with a possible chance of attaining the first in 
a less period of the future. 

As for St. Louis, always satisfied with her slow 
and sure niethods, she never went into a decline over 
the growth of Chicago, nor is likely to. She herself 
occupies a typical location of a high grade, typical, 
too, in the line of analogy, to which we have alluded. 
For a long time St. Louis had good reasons for believ- 
ing that her enviable wealth and prestige, together 
with her supposed central location, commanded the ele- 
ments of a development that would distance all rivals 
for supremacy in the great valley of the interior. But 
destiny pointed a few degrees further north, to a city 
in a latitude towards which, indeed, seem to trend all 
the greater triumphs of both ancient and modern popu- 
lations on their numdane march from east to west. 

and frequent delay over the difficult navigation of the Columbia rive'', which often more 
than covers tlie railroad charges from Purtian^i lo Tacii.a. Grain hah even been 
shipped in liKht vessels from Portland here, sold mid re->hlpp d in heavy bottoms but 
this long and dangerous distance by water has e-n d pcoutinued in favor of the nl irier 
railroad route, a method that must increase with llie completion of the Union Pacific 
aud other railroads from Portland here. Thus ihc capi al accuinulat<'d in one city is 
employed in utilizing the facilitie> of auoiher to the advantHgc of both. 



TACOMA AND DESTINY. 33 

The map of North America displays three conspic- 
uous lines of cities stretching across the continent. 

One of these lying between the 35th and 40th 
parallels of latitude, seems to have been the line first 
attracting attention as furnishing the most feasible and 
popular route for a trans- continental railway system. 
Starting from Baltimore, Md. , it runs westerly, taking 
in Pittsburg, Pa., Cincinnati, O., St. Louis and Kansas 
City, Mo., through Denver, Col., and Salt Lake, Utah, 
to San Francisco, Cal. Each one of these cities, not to 
mention other prosperous towns on nearly the same 
line, have received the stamp and seal of destiny, en- 
titling them to metropolitan honors for limited, yet 

Gpand Areas 
Of rich territory, extensive trade and large population. 

A prominent line of cities still further south can 
also be pointed out, of which the same things, as to 
conunanding importance for their respective sections, 
may be said, viz: Charleston, S. C, Mobile, Ala., New 
Orleans, La, Galveston, Tex. , and Vera Cruz, Mexico 
City and Mazatlan, in Mexico. All these are destined 
to figure prominently in the future .of the continent 
and its interoceanic pathways. 

But it is quite another line of initial points of 
population in North America, lying between the 40th 
and 50th parallels, that has lately established itself as 
the ideal track of interoceanic communication. The 
completion of two mammoth systems of railways, one 
in Canada and one in the United States, with supple- 
mentary continental roads under construction, has 
demonstrated that the shortest, best and quickest 



34 TACOMA AND DESTINY. 

routes of transit from Europe to Asia lie across the 
American continent between these parallels. The an- 
cient "East" is thus reached through the West, the 
real Orient having been overtaken by the Star of 
Empire, which starting from the home of the Aryan 
r^ce in central Asia — or wherever else it originated, 
has kept on its way bearing " west by no'th," till to find 
further conquests, it must now cross the Pacific ocean, 
and carrying with it a newer and better civilization, 
re-illumine the vast regions whence it first appeared 
on the horizon. 

This line of American cities — ignoring the invid- 
ious national distinctions, may be epitomized thus: 
Boston, Montreal, Toronto, Detroit, Omaha, Minne- 
paul, Duluth, Winnipeg, Spokane, Portland, Victoria. 

But among all these cities, in the three great belts, 
prominent and important as they all a.re, not one has 
been mentioned that can be cited as the probable or 
possible metropolis of either of the 

Three Great Divisions 

Of the continent in which they are situated, viz: the 
Atlantic seaboard, the Pacific seaboard, and the great 
Interior. Each one of these grand departments needs 
and must have a "measuring city" for the use of all 
the others; a main entrepot of mercantile, maritime 
and monetary commerce.* In each there will be one, 
and but one main monetary center, one general focus 
of all the railroads and shipping lines which do busi- 
ness in and for those divisions. All the facts of exi)e- 
rience and analogy, unite to lu'ove the tendency and 



* "Drafts on New York are worth their face all over the United States in settle- 
ment of accounts." The same is largely true of Chicago, but of no other city. 



TACOMA AND DESTINY. 35 

necessity of tlie concentration of great monetary in- 
stitutions and commercial appliances at leading focal 
points, where exchange and transhipment is most 
convenient and inexpensive, while production, manu- 
facturing, residence, and resorts of poi)ulation, are 
distril)uted throughout the districts where the re- 
sources of each region are found. Thus the large and 
the small cities, towns, villages, hamlets, and neigh- 
borhoods, each have their respective necessities for 
existence, their uses, convenience, and beneficial rela' 
tions to each other. 

, In two of these great divisions the question of 
supremacy is already settled. No one surmises that 
New York City can ever be dislodged from her position 
as the commercial metropolis of the Atlantic seaboard. 
Her destiny, due to natural position, is fixed beyond 
repeal. 

And the next great division is .just as definitely 
supplied. Chicago, without a dissenting voice, is 
queen of commerce in the great central basin. She 
now occupies 40 miles of dockage (Enc. Brit.) along the 
two branches of Chicago river and is reclaiming large 
areas from Lake Michigan, besides extending her 
marine environs to Calumet river and lake, some 20 
miles to the south.* Her marine tonnage — clearing 

* The Degplaines river, eight miles inland, a stream but little above the Lake level 
is also proposed, at great cost, to be connected with Chicago's harbor system. This ten- 
dency of commerce to extend itself inland at all seaports— no matter what the cost— is 
shown already at Tacoma, The site of Old Taeoma at the very mouth of Commencement 
Bay, was selected in 186S as the'nucleus af a future city. But marine traffic soon mi- 
grated to the present wharves, more than a milefiirther inland, and business which began 
at or near them, is now gradually extending up, with the newly dredged channel, around 
and across the tide flats towards Puyullup City, eight miles inland, which it will soon 
reach when the Indian title to intervening lands is extinguished. And as their low 
level presents no serious engineering obstacles, the Puyallux) river for 16 miles to its 
forus, and also the Stuck, a deep, bayou-like branch, extending from the Puyallup to the 
White river, eight miles, and that stream to its debouchement into the Sound near 



36 TACOMA AND DESTINY. 

not alone for inland waters, but for ocean ports in 
all parts of tlie world, via Welland and Illinois canals, 
is said to exceed that of any Atlantic port, and as for 
railroads, what road in tlie United States or Canada 
lias not some sort of terminal or mid-continental con- 
nection at Chicago. 

On the Pacific Coast, some may affect to regard the 
question of supremacy as still pending, or persist, 
against evidence, in setting up conflicting claims. But 
if analogies, ancient or recent, are worth anything, 
there can be no more doubt about the choice of destiny 
on the Pacific coast than in the other two sections. 

Glance at your map and note the position of 
The Three Cities, 
New York, Chicago, Tacoma. 

They all lie on the isothermal line of country, cli- 
mate, and production, of which Jay Cooke found the 
trend, and which about equally divides the extreme 
boundaries of the great English-speaking continent of 
North America — that extends from Panama to the 
North Pole, for the bulk of all the "business" done 
on this continent will always be done in the English 
dialect. 

Chicago is popularly, though erroneously, supposed 
to be situated near the territorial center of the conti- 
nent. It has already made great strides towards vying 
with New York both in population and finance. These 



Seattle, a distance in all of some 42 miles, will in time, be made into a continuous, deej), 
tide-level, fresh or semi-fresh water channel or canal, for the accommodation of the im- 
mense commerce that must concentrate here in the near future. How immense that 
will soon be, can be surmised from the fact that the foreii?n tonnage now frequenting 
Korth American Pacific ports, is larger than that of all Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico ports 
together. That commerce here, as elsewhere, will take this course, if possible to be done, 
the towns and cities along these valleys may confidently expect. 



TACOMA AND DESTINY. 37 

two cities have a history, and comparisons of the past 
furnish curious and suggestive figures from which to 
compute the time, when at the rate of their present 
mutual increase, Chicago will be prepared to contend 
for supremacy in both population and wealth. 

But the true emporium of the Pacific coast, is yet 
nascent in history. The resources of its tributary 
regions, countries, and continents, near and remote, 
are yet eitlier undeveloped or unappropriated. Its 
connections with its own and the continents contigu- 
ous, are still inchoate in condition as were those of 
New York previous to 1825. It is not yet popularly 
realized or even generally known, that Tacoma is very 
much nearer the exact center of the United States ter- 
ritory and of the entire continent, than is Chicago, 
being, instead of west, about 400 miles east of the 
central line of longitude. Nor is it realized that its 
position for foreign traffic is geographically far more 
favorable tlian New York or London ever enjoyed.* 
Less than five years in age as a city, Tacoma's growth 
is in the future, but that it will be on lines parallel 
with the history of New York and Chicago, only more 
rapid and brilliant in achievement, is as certain as that 
its natural position is similar and tliat the social and 
economic conditions of the present period are vastly 
superior. 

* It should be borne in mind that its present distance by water from European 
markets is soon to be shortened by two important marine routes, viz: via Nicaragua and 
Hudson's Bay. An all-rail route via Behring Straits is likewise among the probable 
possibilities of not distant time. 



\I. propt^eey. 



" No pent up Utica contracts our powers, 

But the wbole boundless world will yet be ours. 



^lK 




'T is imposi^ible to predict witli precision the 
future, but forecasts, sucli as careful financiers 
and statisticians employ, and students of the 
"philosophy of history" constantly indulge 
in, are sometimes fruitful of good results. Not so 
definite and certain as the mathematical forecasts of 
the astronomer, yet they often affect events by tending 
to bring about the results they predict sooner than 
would otherwise happen, through directing attention 
to the means which accomplish them. To predict an 
event that is pointed out by and pending the course of 
natural law, is to hasten its arrival. 

In this light prophets are not altogether unprof- 
itable. 

There is one other analogy, too historically pat to 
be passed over without notice. 

The march of empire has. been accomplished by 
the steady creation, not only of new commercial centers, 
but of that upon which all commerce depends, 

Neui Monetary Centers. 

Babylon, in the legendary east, probably organized 
the first "Board of Trade" — and most of them are 
"Babels" still. 



TACOMA AND DESTI-NEY. 39 

Tyre, at the extreme head of the Mediterranean, 
perhaps formed one of the last halting places of the 
money changers, before leaving Asia. Later, the bal- 
ance of trade hung periodically between Alexandria, 
in Egypt, and Athens, or other cities, in Greece. Then 
pushing further west to Eome, to Venice, to Genoa, to 
Frankfort, the Hague, and to London, where it has 
made a somewhat lengthy and historically brilliant 
halt.* But 

" Coming events cast their shadows before." 

Tlie constant accession of European capital, to- 
gether with financial development generally in the 
new world, points to the not far distant day, when the 
monetary control of the Avorld's traffic w^ill be trans- 
ferred to this side of the Atlantic* Such a result is a 

e 

necessary corollary of Bishop Berkley's poetic prophecy, 
for the "Star of empire" must be followed by the 
"wise men" bearing the gold, frankincense, and myrrh 

* The Bank of England, which Is the great depository of bullion in the realm, 
holds at ordinary times in its vaults !i!125,OCO,000. 

Th'e Bank of Germany holds $200,000,000 of liuUion in gold and silver. 

The Bank of France usually holds .$i75,00U,n00. 

The United States holds in the treasury and in the various national banks some- 
where about ifTOO.oao.OOO in gold aud silver. 

It will be observed that among the above England stands the lowest on the list. 
This can be accounted for in two ways^ There being no issue of notes under the value 
of $25, it necessitates an immense quantity of gold being kept in circulation Secondly, 
the commerce of Great Britain with other countries being so enormous, and its lending 
powers so great, a perpetual drain is the inevitable result. Russia, Italy and Spain have 
little or no financial influence. They are constant borrowers from more wealthy nations, 
but lenders, never. (Gommercial Review, 1891.) 

* The STRUGGLE FOR GOLD IN EoEOPE.— Eleven of the leading joint-stock banks 
held in 1889 only 10 3-10 per cent, reserves against 12 9-10 per cent, in 1879, and these 
reserves counted as cash the balances of these banks in the Bank of England. Mr. 
Goschen insisted that the banks must become more independent, and that beginning 
July 1st they must issue monthly statements showing the actual cash in their tills. This 
new demand for gold to strengthen reserves caused tbe great banks of Europe to scour 
the world for the yellow metal. The united States came to the re.?cue; while ?70,000,000 
of gold left our shores for foreign parts. The splendid spectacle of the great republic 
yielding up to European necessities such vast sums of money almost on the eve of an 
autumnal crop movement of unprecedented proportions, extorted the admiration of 
the world, and attested the tremendous resource and vitality of our country, (Geo- 
Rutledge Gibson, in Nat. Convention of Bankers, New Orleans, Nov. 1891,) 



4U TACOMA AND DIOSTINV. 

of meiraiitile enterprise, or else it must cease its travel 
toward the Avest -which it will never do until it rests 
over the si)ot where the young city, last-born child of 
civilization lies, as yet in its swathing clothes. Once 
transferred to this continent and who shall essay to 
stop its predestined i-ourse ^ Henceforth it needs 
neither prophet nor poet to foretell its movements. 
The oiily possible halting points in its career will be 
New York and Chicago — if indeed it should not over- 
leap the first altogether. The ^great valley city of the 
continent is perhaps already constructing the coffers 
to contain the coin which shall supply sinews of support 
to the World's commerce — even as she is now preparing 
to exhibit the grand results of the World's production. 
After fulfilling its destiny at the head of Lake Michi- 
gan will not the financial center, true to its traditions, 
travel to a still more central emporium, which can 
only be found on the Pacific coast, where "facilities of 
exchange," not only with the richest and most populous 
hemisi)here, but with 

The Whole CUopld, 

Will be most feasible and (-onvenient ? 

And when the Celestial and Mongolian millions 
shall adopt Western civilization — as under the influence 
of modern commerce, they must in time or be extermi- 
nated — the star of commerc-ial progress will have ac- 
comi)lished its missionary purpose and may then start 
again on another and still more beneficent cycle of the 
earth. How many trii)s it may already have made 
sinc(^ man the monad commenced his upward mental 
metamorphosis, oi- how many it may yet make b(;fore 



TA('OMA AS\) liKsri.VV. 



41 



tlif^ full fniitioii, to \vlii<"li man ]fK>kH forwjird in 
'' Ijookin^ Ba<;k\vard," nljail Imvc arrived, we cannot 
know, but \v(;, do know tJiat itn march lian be(;n steadily 
westward ninee our liiKtorie p(;riorl.w be^^an, and that itn 
advent always bodes peace and plf;nty "to men of ^^ood 
will," wherever its rays have reached on itn journey 
around tlie world. 




V/l. ^opelusioQ. 




" There is a tide iu tlie affairs of men, 

Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune." 

O those wlio have never carefully considered 
the force of the foregoing facts and analo- 
gies, a certain air of blaze, bombast, or un- 
warranted assumption, may have seemed 
to attach to the phrase "City of Destiny," which has 
so frequently been applied to the city of Tacoma by 
erratic orators or dillitante writers, who, if they under- 
stand it, seMom stop to give due statement of its deep 
philosophical and practical import. But an unbiased 
examination of its real meaning, by any person of aver- 
intelligence and candor, cannot fail to remove any 
such impression. On the contrary, our present study 
has invested the phrase with a new and peculiar inter- 
est. The word "destiny" — so susceptible of abuse by 
designing charlatans, under the exegetical analysis we 
have given it, is shorn, once and forever, of every pos- 
sible trace of superstition or mystery. Destiny is 
nothing more nor less than the evolution of law, invar- 
iably establishing the "eternal fitness of things." 
Bacon perceived its pith when he wrote — under the 
nom deplume "Shakespeare," 

" There's a divinity that shapes our ends, 
Rough-hew them how we will." 

It is not too much to claim that under the foregoing, 
simple, concise explanation of historical data, the clear 



TACOMA AND DESTINY. 43 

esoteric light of logical demonstration has unmistak- 
ably established the certainty that the city of Tacoma, 
with its outlying auxiliaries, is destined — not by blind 
chance, nor yet primarily by human purpose, but by 
the unalterable laws of cause and effect, to occupy the 
place of supremacy among commercial cities on the 
Pacific slope ? No legerdemain, performed by ignoring 
facts and well established principles, no loose esti- 
mates or unreliable guess-work as to what men have 
done or intend doing, is allowed to enter these calcu- 
lations. Nor is any amount of business energy and 
ability, nor even capital, "the almighty dollar," relied 
upon — except as mere adjuncts, for the accomplish- 
ment of Tacoma's destiny. Of all these Tacoma pos- 
sesses her fair share ; they are, in fact, but a part of 
destiny's legitimate assets and concomitants, but the 
certainty of her future is enforced by something far more 
potent and uniform in action than these alone, by a 

Grand Geogpaphieal Centralization 
An uniform historical and commercial necessity, the 
legitimate application and results of which, as applied 
to Tacoma, it is impossible to ignore, i)revent, escape, 
deny, or explain away. 

It is one of the most beneficial provisions of nature 
that men should differ as to the best locations for ex- 
pending their surplus energy and capital, thereby de- 
veloping the resources of every section. Men of every 
blood are constituted with different tastes to dwell on 
all the face of the earth."''" 

* Destiny wills this divisiou of labor Hiid pursuits. Nature points out the spots 
adapted to each. Man must submit. That is, honor law. Bow to destiny. What avails 
recaUitrancj' — no matter how "ent-rgeiic" a form it may take? Those enterprising 
cities who are now playing their " push " against destiny, are loUowlng too closely the 



44 TACOMA AND DESTINY. 

In tlie liglit of these analogies the appellation 
"City of Destiny," when applied to such cities as 
London, New York, Chicago or Tacoma, is perfectly 
rational and appropriate. In either case it is no mis- 
nomer, no unmeaning catchword, no buncombe, boom- 
let, nor boomerang, but a genuine idiomatic English 
phrase, conveying in its combined sense, valuable 
historical analogy, true criti(Jal acumen and pure finan- 
cial foresight. 

Tacoma's history has been, and will continue to 
be, the analogue of the history of all successful cities 
the world over; with this single exception, viz: the 
advanced condition of the world's w^ealth and popula- 
lation, its improved methods, means and appliances 
for the rapid development of natural resources, being 
so much greater now than at any former period, her 
grow^th from the start will be proportionately more 
rapid. 

Africa, South America and Australia are furnish- 
ing outlets for the redundant populations of Europe, 
but among all the older or newer regions of the world, 
none are so favorable situated to receive a speedy and 
permanent development as the western w^ater-shed of 
the North American continent. The growth of civiliza- 
tion in older countries and states has been for centuries 
prei)aring conditions for successfully taking possession 
of this, the most admirably adapted territorial arena 
ever yet opened, for a display of human energy and 

example of dame Partington, who thought that energy with mop and trundle could 
wipe up and wring out the Atlantic ocean. It can, just as easily as arrest or change the 
destined course of commerce. In either ease it will prove a waste of energy. Better 
let the ocean tides rise obedient to law, and keep abreast of them on lines accordant 
with their flow. But to ♦hose who will not take this advice, we can only repeat the irony 
of Sir Sidney Smith—" Go on, gL'ntltmcn. you will b^'.'it Mrs. Partiiitrton." 



TACOMA AND DESTIISTY. 45 

intellect. For rapidly subduing nature and appropri- 
ating her riches, nowhere has man found her forces 
more subservient, or her resources more varied, exten- 
sive, or readily remunerating. Nor have they else- 
where been found under such genial and equable, yet 
vigorous conditions of climate, such favorable relations 
of race and refinement, or such rare financial regime 
and enlightened govermental policy. 

In 1852 the census figures gave Chicago a popula- 
tion of 38,796, a less number than Tacoma new con- 
tains. 

At the end of four decades from the above date, 
i. e. in 1892, there will doubtless reside within a radius 
of forty miles from Chicago harbor, quite two millions 
of inhabitants. Will it require two score years from 
now to place within a much smaller radius around 
Tacoma harbor, an equal number of people ? • It does 
not seem so 

To a Cnan 
Who studies the Pacific slope and its foreign afiiliations 
after haying watched Chicago's growth since 1852. 
Those who are on tlie spot, estimate that the ground 
already platted and sold for actual or intended im- 
provement within Chicago's present limits, would af 
ford homes for a population of 5,000,000. Would the 
addition of 3,000,000 to that city and its environs, 
within the next half century be any more phenomenal 
than its wonderful growth to 2,000,000 in tlie last? 
Thousands, in that time, having caught the "tide," 
have \)een borne on "to fortune" while other thousands 
who "omitted" it now furnish — "examples that others 
may profit by avoiding." 



46 TACOMA AND DESTINY. 

No one can doubt that the sum total of Tacoma's 
re^ourcec?, domestic and foreign, together with the 
entire aspect of her own and the world's present en- 
vironments, are vastly superior to [those of ^Chicago in 
1852, and that it is only a question of TIME when a 
greater city than Chicago ov New York Avill flourish 
on the more salubrious shores of Puget Sound. 

With all these facts before us are Ave not war- 
ranted in postulating 

Great Expectations 

For the groAvth of Tacoma and its environs on Paget 
Sound, within the period of the present generation? 

In another brochure we shall give further facts, 
figures and analogies in regard to climate, scenery, soil 
products, resources of mines, forests, fisheries, foreign 
traffic, etc., wdiich will place tlie prospects of Tacoma 
and its sister cities on Puget Sound, above par in 
comparison with the most ambitious, promising and 
salubrious cities and regions of the world. 

Tacoma, Dec. 1, 1891. 





MOUNT TACOMA, 14,444 Feet High. 



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